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This entire year flew by that I never even updated this blog. Well, after reading my old posts I cannot even believe I came back to Kansas City to teach at the same school in the same grade. I. Loved. almost. Every. Day. This. Year. In three weeks school will be over and I will…

Surprise! I’m still alive. I was renewed at my school and with great debate I decided I will finish a second year in the inner city of Kansas City. Some of my friends did not fare so well, but that is for another discussion. The end of the year was crazy with testing and testing…

Yep. One of my students relieved himself on the bathroom floor last week. He was served with a six day suspension. Although my class has been way better behaved (knock on wood) these last two days without his presence and that of another student who was suspended for 10 days, I have mixed feelings about…

Reasons why I hate my job: We are told in the morning we have a meeting after school. I only teach math, when I should be teaching all subjects. The school doesn’t want to turn on the a/c. I’m nine hours away from my fiance. Reasons why I REALLY hate my job: There is a…

My life has thrown some interesting curve balls these past few weeks. Last week I missed two precious days of school, Monday and Friday. Monday morning I woke up, got ready and went to my nice, old car. (I am still driving my first car, a 2001 Chevy) To my surprise, my car window was…

Well, today we were informed that there will be no social studies instruction. There will be no science instruction. Reading will be a 60 minute block. And Math… Math will be 180 minutes. Math, because, MATH is low hanging fruit. If we can improve our math scores, then maybe we will be able to get…

Happy Snow Day from Kansas City! What I did today: Caught up on bills. Ate Lamars Donuts and drank coffee with fellow TFAers. Learned to use Excel. Bought new pens. It is now a two day week for our district. No students Thurdsay, Friday or Monday. Will my kids be crazy or will they…

It has been one month since the second semester began and maybe I should knock on wood, but it has become so. much. easier. I cannot decide if my recent engagement has caused me to be in an euphoric state, and being in this state has helped ease the pain of teaching in the inner…

God knows we are messy people. We must understand that others in our lives are messy too, and forgive and accept them like God has done for us. This was today’s sermon and has been a thought that has stuck with me throughout the day. As I sat there in church with other TFA CMs,…

Adrian, a wonderful, funny, and special child raise his hand and said, “If someone walked in here they would say, Woah, look at these kids, they’re actually learning real stuff.” Yes Adrian! Woohoo. We were learning about subjects and predicates and my kids were learning, it was joyful and they seemed to be having fun.…

Tomorrow starts week 20. Tomorrow is our first day back from break. My room was renovated over the holidays and I was left with a hot mess, but was kicked out of school around 4pm – so tomorrow the hot mess awaits. My resolution for the new school year: to ALWAYS have our morning meeting…

On Christmas Eve, the love of my life got on one knee and proposed to me. I accepted. WHAT!? He had been joking that an empty silver box sitting on the table was for a ring for me in 4 years when he could afford to actually buy one. He asked me to dance and…

my school gave to me… FIVEEEEE SUSPENSIONS. Yep. That’s right. Over the last three days of school, five of my students have been suspended. (Profanity to follow) 1. For calling a girl a whore and kicking her in the stomach during support. 2. For calling a girl a nappy headed bitch and hitting her upside…

Friday, December 23rd, 11:35 am, cannot get here soon enough. 3.5 days left until winter break. 3.5 days left until two weeks in beautiful Wisconsin. It is so difficult to teach this week. Between Christmas programs, excitiment, lack of changing classes the previous week and trying to change classes this week and fist fights, I…

I recently gave one of my eight year old students my cell phone. See, she was suspended off the bus for beating up a first grader, but this girl has NEVER caused severe problems of violence in my classroom. To say that I am concerned about this behavior is an understatement. Well, last night my…

Oh, Grad School. I guess I did not do enough research about the requirements expected as me and a first year teacher joining TFA. We must continue our education, either with the certification or grad school program. We were able to choose between two schools, a public and private school, and before summer comes, we…

When I woke up this morning and saw snow a few thoughts crossed my mind. 1. Is there enough on the ground for my first ever (I grew up in Florida) snow day? 2. Do I even know how to drive in the snow? 3. What will this do to my kids? I have never,…

As I left Kansas City last night on an airplane to travel far, far, away from my stress and anxiety and be with my family and love for the holiday I reflected on the day. I made my students make Thankful Hand Turkeys. They had to write four things they were thankful for on each…

30% of the absences are filled at my elementary school. Meaning 3 out of 10 teacher absences are actually filled with a sub. This means 7 out of 10 absences are filled with… regular teachers. One too many subs have declared that they will not return to our school. My already over capacity classroom of…

Today we had a power outage… that lasted a hour and a half. Our school does not have windows so when the lights went off, it was practically pitch black. It was unfortunate. My takeaway from the day: My kids will not survive if we have a real emergency. Guess we need to work on…

I finally felt like a teacher yesterday! It was amazing, wonderful and so exciting. I made the assumption that my students knew that there are seven continents… false. So, in the moment, I taught. I quickly searched for a song and my kids jumped up and down, danced and clapped. It. Was. So. Beautiful. Rigor.…

According to my roommate, “You are the best effing teacher at your school.” Ha. She said this to me when I told her that I was not put on the district initiative to help TFA and Veteran teachers for SCL elementary schools with planning. My roommate really knows how to humor me. My recommendation for…

Basically a month has passed since I almost walked into my Principal’s office and called it quits. Am I better? No. Are my kids doing better? Debatable. Is classroom management under control? Absolutely not. Do I still get sick every day before work? Yes. So why am I still here? I often believe it is…

Today at recess, a mother came to school dressed like a cat. She wanted her kid. There had been an ongoing custody disagreement, and I had specific instructions to never like the student leave with her mother. She took her child, climbed through a hole in the fence, and would not stop as me and…